Newbie to MFP with plantar fasciitis

Precious1078

I'm a newbie to MFP looking for friends. I have plantar fasciitis & want to workout, but it hurts & aches my feet about 5-10 minutes after starting. I was told I can't jump or run. I enjoy doing jumping jacks, jumping rope & squats. I don't know how to swim & don't have a bicycle. Any suggestions/ideas are greatly appreciated. I need help trying to keep from being depressed from not being able to workout like I want. This sucks

girlviernes

I feel you. I've struggled with plantar fasciitis for years, and right now i have a sprained ankle. have you gone to physical therapy?

heybales

Orthotics in all your shoes, or a pair you switch around.

That tendon is stretched every time it bears your weight, just standing. Hard to heal when it's under constant tension, takes longer.

So a proper orthotic provides complete support so the tendon doesn't have to.

During this time of use, inflexible shoes, your knees will need to compensate. Flexible means it's stretching too.

Once healed though, to help get it stronger, you do need to start using it gently, so back to flexible shoes, eventually no orthotic, then barefoot as much as possible, ect.
Only use the orthotic in inflexible shoes at that point.

And you might check some running or physical therapy stores around, some of them do make custom. Not the Good Feet store where they pick from 3-5 heights or sizes or whatever, that's not custom.

We have a running store here with a device that air pushes up a bunch of rods under your foot to get a mold. About $120 I think, much better than Podiatrist cost of $400.
Though, once you see the Podiatrist do it once, you can also order extra online and do it yourself, not hard at all.
So depends on how many shoes you need it in.

Took about a year for me.

If you bike, need the pedal in middle of foot, not traditional forefoot. Which just creates a bad lever and really stretches it.

All the weight machines that are not pushing on foot are fine, so leg curls and extensions, glute curls, all upper body, just not calf machine.

So there is plenty to do, if you have the access.

Precious1078

Thank you for the info, I'm going to try finding the insoles for cheaper..mine are $500 at my podiatrist which my insurance doesn't cover. I'm going to do work on doing better with the stretching exercises, icing & make use off the $100 night splint I got from the doctor. I can do a few minutes of exercises like jumping jacks, jogging etc.., but can't go hard like I want without pain.

heybales

Really, if you do anything besides walking - you will drag it out longer, unless you have very minor injury.

I would not wish the 7 year drag out I did to anyone. The 1 year healing could have been done much sooner and not wasted that time.

The orthotics is so that plain old walking stops causing injury and prevents healing.

That other stuff even with orthotic will just slow down or prevent healing.

tekkiechikk

There are exercises you can do to help it (like using a towel to stretch your foot every day- zero cost). I had it a few years ago and did the exercises nightly and eventually it went away and I haven't gotten it since. Invest in good shoes, too!

Another thing that really helped was I froze a water bottle and then rolled my foot across it at night. I work in a big building and am on my feet a lot so this really helped reduce the swelling.

Use Google to find exercises for plantar fasciitis relief.

sheltrk

I've struggled with plantar fasciitis on and off for about 15 years now. I can tell you, the best thing I ever did for it was lose weight! I'm ~60 lbs lighter now than I was when I first started having PF flare ups, and I rarely have serious pains with it now. Besides losing the weight, other things that have helped:
1. Always wear good shoes with good arch support. I normally wear prescription orthotics. If I go a few days in flip flops, I definitely get sore feet!
2. Stretching. The towel exercise previously mentioned really helps. Anything that stretches out my Achilles tendon. There are special boots and other things you can wear overnight to help with stretches too.
3. When I'm not fighting a flare up, weight-bearing exercise on my feet (with proper arch support) to strengthen muscles. Be sure to stretch afterwards.
4. For flare ups, I try to stay off my feet as much air possible. The frozen water bottle (also previously mentioned) really helps.